An Entity's Divine Mercy
by Chrono-Wannabe
Summary: For most of Earth, it is because of the Entity's meddling that all the good things have happened so far. But for Magus, the Entity may just go too far...
1. The Entity

The Entity of Earth is a good, honest, hardworking fellow. He always completes his goals and raises the standards. Why, just a few weeks ago he helped change history by allowing a young princess Nadia – known to some as Marle – to "accidentally" travel backwards in time via a teleporter. The poor Entity's contemporaries mocked and chided his mistake, only to be awed later at how that same princess and the two friends who came to save her would embark on a quest to save the world itself.

There are many other proofs of the Entity's profound charity, wisdom and cleverness. In the incident where Prometheus, also known to his friends as Robo, was betrayed and devastatingly attacked by his old friends, it was through the Entity's benevolence that Robo survived. Then again after Robo had finished replanting the forest, the Entity opened a time gat that allowed Lucca to change her mother's dismal fate. And of course, who can forget his greatest act: that frightful day on Death Peak in 2300 AD, when Marle, Lucca, and Glenn braved all the impossibilities to resurrect their friend and leader Chrono. Through the Entity's power a time gate was opened to the exact time and place Chrono sacrificed himself, allowing the band of adventurers a chance to have him back.

Yes, the Entity is a grand, splendid, ever-thoughtful fellow.

However, though those qualities do make an excellent Entity, one should be careful of whom the Entity spares his mercy and aide to. Not to mention how he aides the said person. Entities aren't perfect. They are known to make mistakes. Very big mistakes. Those actions had a good meaning, but that didn't change the fact that they're mistake. And if there were any a mistake our dear Entity made, it was with a certain wizard.

Woe to the wizard.

It all started when the Entity did a check up on a fellowship of seven heroes bound to save the world by destroying the demon-creature Lavos. Sure, the Entity could have done it himself but the others…um…beat him to it. Yeah.

Anyways, back to the topic.

The Entity had a filing cabinet he kept with him in his office in the Void. Inside the cabinet were little manila folders the contained all the information he needed about the band of time travelers. With everything from age to blood type to favorite pasta, the Entity felt powerful with this information at his fingertips. But then again he _is the Entity, and power comes with the job. _

After doing a quick check-up on the first six manila folders (Glenn had just calmed Cyrus' spirit and Marle rescued her father a few days ago) he came to the last one. Carefully the Entity picked it up and opened it. This folder belonged to Magus, previously known as Prince Janus, and had always intrigued the Entity. He had never had the time to read the thick, dark pages of his bio and had only seen the page on the top where his stats were. 

He wondered…

The Entity took a quick side glance at the clock hanging magically in the void, as well as the calendar on his desk that showed his appointments for the day. Both guaranteed him that he could read without interruption, but he had second thoughts about the folder. He knew that Magus was a dark character indeed, mostly from Glenn's bio on the day Magus killed Cyrus. 

When that fateful day happened, it took the Entity totally by surprise that Cyrus suddenly appeared in the Void so early in his life. The Entity always wondered about the back story that caused Magus to do such a thing like murder. Well, here was his chance right in front of him in a manila folder on his desk. With that last thought, the Entity poked his head through the door, ordered his angel-secretary to cancel all calls, rushed to his desks, and began reading.

And was utterly heartbroken. 

Magus' tale was – in short – downright angsty. It was full of misery and woe, starting with his mother being possessed by Lavos, his dear sister and cat ripped from him, being thrown into 600 AD to fall into the hands of the Mystics, to be forced to the dark arts, and…oh it was just too much for our poor Entity! Even before he was finished he was sobbing quietly at his desk over the poor mage. The pain! The suffering! Oh why hadn't this individual been noticed by him before? He could have stopped this all from happening! 

As soon as he thought that he immediately ceased his weeping. _I owe this to him,_ the Entity thought. _I owe this to Magus for not being there before._ But how could he compensate the mage for all his years of torment? The Entity counted his options.

First, he could go back in time and stop the whole Ocean Palace disaster from happening. But, as the Entity realized, that would also cause all the other critical events leading to Lavos' destruction to never happen. 

Second, he could change the destination of the time gate that led him into the Mystic Ozzie's clutches. But that where could he send Magus? He couldn't just leave him in the Ocean Palace when it was being destroyed.

And third, well…there wasn't a third.

The Entity slumped back in his chair. He was flat out of ideas. If only there was a way to give Magus his innocence back. His childhood back…

That's it!

"I'll give him his childhood back!" the Entity shouted to no one in particular. Running back out the door, he rushed towards his secretary.

"Darcy," he addressed the angel, "I need Spekio."

Minutes later, Spekio entered the Entity's office in the form of a red nu. Cautiously, he crept towards the desk, where the Entity was busy working out his fool-proof plan.

"Um…" Spekio stammered. "Mr. Entity, sir?"

The Entity's head quickly shot up, causing Spekio to lose his balance and stumble over.

"Oh, Spekio!" he greeted all too cheerfully. "Good to see you were able to come! But whatever are you doing on the floor?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry about that, sir," Spekio meekly answered as he picked himself off the floor. Normally Spekio would have sounded a lot more confident, but this was his first time before the Entity. And Spekio knew that when he was called before any of his superiors, let alone the Entity himself, it must be for something _really bad._

"Never mind about the formalities, Spekio, for we need to cut to the chase," the Entity said. He then motioned to one of the chairs lying before his desk. "Have a seat now; we have a lot to discuss."

Shaking a little, Spekio sat his wide nu body on the chair. _The Entity was acting way to nice for this to something about my behavior, _Spekio thought. _Let's just imagine a worst-case scenario to prepare myself…_

However, since Spekio's mental scenario involved an angry Entity, a blender, Chrono's hair, and a hippie Guru of Time, things didn't really work out for Spekio's confidence.

"Let me start," interrupted the Entity from Spekio's mental drama, "with a question. Do you know of a certain Janus of Zeal, also known as Magus?"

"Yes sir," Spekio answered. What this had to do with him, he didn't know.

"Good, good…" said the Entity, a wry smile on his face. He then muttered under his breath, "All goes according to plan."

"What?"

"Oh, never mind. It's just that I have a favor to ask of you."

A favor! _Oh goody, goody, gumdrops! Spekio thought. __This may not be so bad after all!_

"Whatever you need, sir Entity, and the Master of War will provide!" Spekio offered happily.

Leaning back in his chair, the Entity replied, "Good. I'll need that attitude when I send you on this mission."

Whoa, a mission! Spekio was really moving up in the world. No more guarding the End of Time for him! 

"I'm in!"


	2. Why that Sneaky Spekio

To the casual observer, Gaspar would seem like your average, run-of-the-mill, old guy. He had the gray hair, the cane, and everything old guys have. Being perfectly bland, he fit in with his surroundings: the End of Time. Sure, if you go by the name you may think that it would be some unstable, shaky, apocalyptic place full of clamor and noise. But it wasn't. The End of Time was boring and quiet. In fact, the most exciting thing that Gaspar did his time here was wake up from his naps. Except, of course, when-

Suddenly a large explosion erupts from across the End of Time inside Spekio's room. The door flies open and out flies Chrono, one of the time travelers. Chrono skids across the floor on his back, stopping only when he topples into Gaspar.

"Having a nice fight, Chrono?" the Guru gasped out as he tries to straighten himself up from the two-person dog pile.

Chrono nodded as he helped Gasper up. He quickly did an about face and energetically ran towards the open door. _What a quiet boy, Gasper thought._

Meanwhile, inside Spekio's room, all seven of the heroes were battling Spekio for practice. Immediately after rushing into the room, Chrono executed an attack he and Marle called "Ice Sword 2". Thrusting his sword into Spekio (who was still a red nu) Marle cast a quick Ice spell on the blade. After the spell was cast, they quickly fell back to let the others have a try at Spekio.

The nu, though, was thinking other about other plans. _This is so exciting!_ Spekio thought as Marle and Lucca cast an Antipode 2 on him. _A real mission from the Entity!_ Ignoring the pain, he let out a burst of electricity throughout the whole room. The lightning blinded everyone, including Spekio. When the light cleared, Spekio opened his eyes to only see a large dome of dark energy explode around him, knocking him flat across the fence. 

_Not gonna last much longer,_ Spekio thought. _Better use the spell soon._

"Okay you kids!" he shouted. "I'd like to try something!"

Spekio only received confused glances (and a slightly raised eyebrow from Magus) in reply. 

Ayla was the one who broke the silence. "What Spekio mean?" 

Chrono shrugged.

"Let's just get this over with," Magus mumbled, leaning back on the door he was standing by. He felt that this practice was just a waste of time, since they had already completed all the extra side quests Gaspar had told them to do. They were all ready to take on Lavos, but that annoying little spike-head insisted on "leveling up" or something like that before they do so. Naturally, Magus' patience was beginning to wane. 

While this was going on, Spekio had already begun silently chanting the spell the Entity gave him. It could only work once, so he had to get it right the first time. 

"Untalla mensu candori…" he spoke.

"Say what?" Lucca asked.

"Memory banks have no information on this spell," answered Robo monotonously. "Do you know, Magus?" he asked.

Magus just shrugged in reply. "Seems just like a bunch of useless rabble to me."

"Well, then," said Glenn cautiously, his eyes on Spekio. "Be at thine guard."

Chrono nodded as the others took more defensive stances. Except Magus, of course, who still leaned against the door. Though the spell was not recognizable, he still felt he had heard it somewhere before.

"Esuwari, hainomo, canto…" Spekio droned on.

_I know I've heard it,_ Magus thought. _I swear I've heard something like it before…maybe even used it…_ His gaze trailed over his "comrades" as they waited out Spekio's chant. Lucca had a fire spell ready, Ayla and Marle were preparing for a Cube Toss spell, and both Chrono and Glenn-

Glenn. That's when Magus remembered. 

"I know what it is!" Magus uncharacteristically burst out. 

"And what, pray tell," Glenn said coldly, "is it?"

"That, you worthless amphibian, is the same spell that turned you into a frog."

Marle's eyes widened. "So it's a transformation-"

"ENTUASA!!!" Spekio hollered out, his long nu arms stretched outwards.

"…spell."

Whoops, out of time.

Quickly everyone scattered out of Spekio's way as he pointed his index finger-

-at Magus.

A large flash of purple light slammed into the mage. Quickly afterwards, a bright aura grew around him, flashing different colors. Magus could feel every cell in his body being ripped apart and rearranged. He painfully felt his body shrink as the bright lights blinded him. He could hear the collective yells from the other people in the room, but the sounds seemed distant. Right before unconsciousness overtook him, he swore he heard Spekio yell, "Yes! Mission complete!"

_It's cold,_ was the first though to enter Magus' mind. _Really cold. And dark. And indeed it was. Wherever it was that Magus had been sent, it was definently cold and dark. _

Magus tried to feel around himself, but it didn't even feel like he was moving himself. The void, for lack of better word, he was in seemed to be spinning around him. Or was he doing the spinning?

After a few more seconds, another thought dared to enter his mind. _I'm going to kill Spekio when I'm out of here._

Then Magus started hearing voices. They were faint, but they were still voices. Or maybe he was just going crazy.

One of the voices sounded like Ayla's. 

"Ooooh, pretty colors."

Yep, Magus was insane.

"Oh shush, Ayla," Magus heard Marle say. "This is serious…"

Or maybe not.

"I don't know, I think I like him in this form," said Glenn's voice.

_That…is not a good sign,_ Magus thought. So the spell worked. But to the point Glenn _liked_ it? But then again, anything bad for Magus was good for Glenn.

"Yeah," Marle agreed. "He's sorta cute."

CUTE?! _That's it, Magus mentally fumed. __I'm out of here._

Back in Spekio's room, Chrono and Lucca had cornered Spekio while Robo was sent to go fetch Gaspar. Spekio was standing tall, still giddy over the completion of the Entity's mission. While Lucca began to force answers out of Spekio, Chrono couldn't help but keep stealing glances at the transformed wizard. He hadn't expected Magus to be the target of the spell, and was even less prepared for the out come. Sure, it would've made sense if he was transfigured into a bat or Mystic or something like that, but _this? _

"Okay Spekio," Lucca questioned. "What exactly do you mean by 'mission'?"

Spekio – now in kiwala form – happily answered, "You should know. Mission, as in a quest, adventure, assignment-"

"I know that!" interrupted Lucca. 

"Then why'd you ask? Huh? Huh?" Spekio asked, nearly dancing around with joy.

"I asked because-" Lucca started only to be interrupted by Spekio again.

"No more guard duty for me!" Spekio was just about literally bouncing off the walls while ignoring Lucca completely. "The Entity's going to be so proud!"

Both Chrono and Lucca blinked. "What?" Lucca demanded. "What about the Entity?"

Spekio was more than glad to answer. "Well, it started a few days ago when-"

"Hey! He's waking up!" Marle's shout interrupted. Immediately all heads turned towards the comatose wizard lying on the floor. The Guru of Time and Robo had just come in.

"Who's waking up?" Gaspar asked. Then he saw the stirring form at his feet. "Oh, him."

Slowly Magus tried to open his eyes (thank goodness he still had them). The light still hurt, but he forced himself to look around. Marle and Ayla were sitting besides him with wide eyes, while Glenn was smirking smugly behind them. Chrono was just standing there with his mouth agape and Lucca seemed to be holding back a laugh. Gaspar was towering over-

Wait a moment.

Towering over?

Gaspar wasn't supposed to towering over him. Magus was taller than Gaspar. 

"What is…?" Magus began, but quickly stopped when he noticed the change in his voice. It was so…light. Boyish even.

For the first time in many a year, Magus felt afraid. Very afraid.

"M-maybe this'll help," he heard Marle say from beside him. She cast a small spell that created a thin sheet of reflective ice on her hand. Sitting fully up to see it, Magus ignored the cold and took the mirror from her. His blood froze when he saw the reflection.

Staring back at him was the child-prince of Zeal, Janus. 

Magus laid back down with his eyes squeezed shut in an attempt to absorb the shock. Nobody else even dared to move. After a few minutes, Magus dared to ask, "Spekio?"

"Yes?" he answered, completely ignoring the biting coldness in the voice of the now young boy.

"I'm going to kill you."


	3. DUH!

"What!?!" Spekio gasped, his glee replaced by fear.

"I'd like to ask the same thing," Magus said, "of why you turned me into a child."

Spekio slowly stepped backwards. He could feel everyone's eyes gaze quizzically at him. Magus was still lying down with his eyes shut, trying to control himself. _This won't end well… Spekio thought._

"Um, well," he stammered. "You see…"

"No, I don't see. Why did you change me into this?" Magus' voice was layered with ice, and his patience was wavering.

_Might as well just say it…_ "TheEntitymademedoit!" Spekio yelled out quickly.

"…Pardon?" Frog asked, as many were thinking the same thing.

"He said: 'The Entity made me do it," Robo answered.

"That still doesn't make much sense," Marle commented.

Suddenly Magus sprang to his feet. Marle and Ayla immediately backed away as Spekio emitted a small squeak. "What I do know that makes sense," he told Spekio darkly, "is that there is no counter-spell to a transformation curse, and only one cure." Magus put on a feral smile. "That cure…is to kill the caster."

"What!?!" yelled Spekio in shock. "Y-you can't do that!" Slowly he backed away from the prince until he felt the cold iron of the fence against his back.

"And why is that?" Magus asked in a cold, playful tone.

Chrono, silent as ever, decided to intervene. He leapt from the corner of the room he was in to the small distance between Magus and Spekio. Waving his arms around frantically, he started yelling words no one could hear.

"Like he said!" Spekio said in a last-ditch effort, pointing at Chrono.

"He didn't say anything!" Magus spat back.

The rest of the party just looked on in stunned silence. This was pretty entertaining. But, now that Chrono was involved, someone else needed to step in before things got ugly. Marle bravely volunteered for the job.

"But you still can't just go and kill Spekio, Magus," Marle said. Man, talking to a chibi-version of the most feared warlock of the ages is an unsettling experience.

"Yeah!" Spekio slipped in.

"Because it's wrong," she added.

"Yeah!"

"And we don't even know the whole reason behind this yet."

"Yeah!"

"…So?" Magus asked, angry. "If I don't I'm stuck like this!"

Then Gaspar stepped in. "It doesn't matter."

All eyes went on Gaspar. "What?" was the question everybody asked.

Gaspar gave a knowing smile. "Spekio, I promise no harm will come to you. Just stay where you are," he instructed. Spekio nodded; sweat still trickling down his brow. "Now Magus, I'd like to pick any spell in your arsenal and use it against Spekio."

"WHAT!?!" Spekio yelled for the third time. 

"Just go along with this," Gaspar calmly answered. "You should be fine."

_Yeah_, Spekio hopelessly thought, _should be..._

Meanwhile, Magus had decided that he'd just start with a Dark Bomb spell. He was sure that he should be able to pull this off even if he was just a child.

_At least I should be…_he thought.

"Alright, Magus, fire away," Gaspar called.

Magus nodded shortly and then focused his narrowed eyes on the trembling Spekio. Even for a six-year-old boy, he still looked very intimidating. He spread his arms wide, and then made markings in the air quicker than the eye could follow. Finishing the silent casting, he performed his trademark point.

A hushed, anxious silence filled the room as the occupants waited for the explosion of dark mana.

And waited.

And waited.

About half a minute after the spell was cast, a small spark was feebly fell from Magus' outstretched finger. It weakly dropped at Magus' feet, where it then dissolved in a pathetic fizzle.

"…"

For the first time in a long time, Magus was surprised. Slowly, with wide eyes, he brought the treacherous finger closer to his face and examined it. On the other side of the room, Spekio let out deep sigh.

"That," Magus said after a moment, "was not supposed to happen."

"Actually, it was," Gaspar amended. 

"Explanation please?" Lucca asked, voicing the question on everyone's mind.

"Well," Gaspar began, leaning on his staff, "we can all agree that Magus is now a child, correct?"

There was a collective nod in response, with the exception of Magus who still gaped blankly at his finger.

"Thus saying," Gaspar continued, "Magus only retains the level of magic, among other things, that he had when he was at that age."

"But I could do magic when I was a kid!" Magus shot in defense.

"But that was after you met Ozzie, Flea, and Slash," Gaspar calmly added. "You must have been transformed into an age younger than when you met them. And stop gaping like that. It's completely out-of-character for you."

Magus promptly closed his mouth. 

Gaspar added one more thing. "And besides, even if you were still able to do magic, there's still one thing standing in your way."

"And what's that?" 

"While Spekio can only be harmed by magic, he cannot be killed by magic. He's immortal," Gasper finished.

Spekio slapped his forehead and laughed. "Oh yeah! I completely forgot about that." _So that's why the Entity said the spell could only be cast once…Spekio realized._

Robo, though silent throughout the intire fiasco, decided to add a similar realization of his also. "That means logically, since Spekio cannot be terminated, that Magus has to remain as a child."

Upon hearing this, Magus visibly flinched. Today was just not his day. 

"Isn't there anything else we could do?" Marle asked, noting the uncharacteristic lost look on Magus' face. 

"Not that I know of, but you could always ask the Entity."

"And how are we to do that?"

Gaspar gave a glance towards Spekio. "He should know.

Meanwhile, back at the office…

After being allowed by Darcy to come in, Spekio hesitantly entered the Entity's office. Finding no one there, he crept towards the middle of the room, looking around for any sign of divine life. Suddenly, he heard a voice from behind him, coldly whispering, "Hello…Spekio."

Spekio, taken by surprise, quickly turned. But because of the momentum, ended up quickly turning over and falling flat on his face before a pair of dirty hiking boots.

Wait a moment. Hiking boots?

Glancing up at the Entity, Spekio noticed that the Entity was sporting snow pants, a heavy fur-lined coat, gloves, and other such cold-weather gear.

"Once again, Spekio," the Entity said cheerily, "I must ask of why you are lying prostrate on my floor?"

Spekio blushed. "Well, you see-"

"Never mind," the Entity interrupted. "That was rhetorical. Go ahead and take a seat." As Spekio did so, the Entity continued. "So let's see…you're here because Gaspar asked you to help clarify things up with me?"

"How did you-?"

"Call it divine intuition," the Entity answered, sitting down at his desk. "And…Darcy told me on the way in." He gave a laugh, which Spekio weakly joined. The Entity always made him nervous.

"Now, as for the question given to you from Gaspar," he continued, "I have only one answer."

"And that is?" Spekio asked with nervous impatience. 

The Entity responded in a mystical voice, "All will be made clear in time… Cliché, I know, but that's all I can say."

"Dare I ask why, sir?" Spekio asked.

"The reason is right here," the Entity answered, reaching into his desk. He pulled out a leather-bound book about the size of a paperback novel. "Behold!" he said triumphantly, holding the book above his head in one hand. "The D.U.H.!"

Spekio raised one of his kiwala eyebrows. "…Sir?"

"You know," the Entity said playfully. "D.U.H.: the Deity's Universal Handbook!"

"…Oh," Spekio replied. He didn't even know that Entity's had a handbook.

The Entity flipped through the book, looking for a page. "Found it," he said to himself, before saying to Spekio, "See? It's right here in rule #382.9: 'No Telling. An Entity, God/ess, Kami, Mhondoro, or any other such Entity are not permitted to depart the information of their holy plans to anyone of the souls, living or deceased, placed in their holy charge.'"

"But what about prophets?" Spekio ventured to ask.

"Those are covered in rule #382.91: 'Exemptions to rule #382.9: No Telling. Any divine being may use prophets to reveal to the world(s) in their charge, as long as the situation is dire enough (i.e. world salvation, apocalypse, etc.) A request for a prophet must be filed at least a hundred years before one is needed, and the prophet in question must be approved by the Lord High Oracle…' and it goes on and on."

"Alright…" Spekio said, still confused. "Hey, do you know what that sounds like?"

"No, what?" the Entity queried.

"A plot device."

The Entity burst out laughing. "Good one, Spekio! But why would I need one of those?"

"Point."

"Anyways, as you can see," the Entity explained, "I'm pretty tied up with regulations. I can't really tell you exactly what I'm planning. I'm only allowed to instruct you in exactly what I need you to do.

"Now for as our current mission," he continued, "we must move onto the next step. I'm sorry to tell you that I won't need you anytime soon," – Spekio didn't know whether to be relieved or worried by this – "but I possibly will farther in the future. In the meanwhile, could you be as kind as to fetch Darcy for me?"


End file.
